At the beginning of October 2024, the EU Commission announced that it would postpone the application of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year. The Bundesverband Druck und Medien e.V. (BVDM) welcomes this decision, but points out that the postponement of application does not solve the fundamental problems associated with the EUDR.
It is true that the planned 12-month transitional period will initially ease the burden on print shops, whose customer relationships are currently under considerable strain due to the numerous uncertainties surrounding the EUDR. For this reason, the BVDM, together with other industry associations in the print value chain and the European umbrella organisation Intergraf, had called for more time to implement the EUDR.
However, the BVDM continues to emphasise the need for a fundamental revision of the regulation in order to protect small and medium-sized companies in particular from excessive bureaucracy and to preserve jobs in the printing industry.
‘The postponement of the EU deforestation regulation gives politicians time to fundamentally rethink the chosen approach to forest protection,’ explains Kirsten Hommelhoff, Managing Director of the BVDM. ‘The EU itself has a duty to promote forest conservation within the framework of trade agreements, instead of crushing companies with unrealisable bureaucratic burdens. The next few months will show whether the EU is willing and able to cut a swathe through the deforestation jungle it has planted itself.’
BVDM
The Bundesverband Druck und Medien e. V. (bvdm) is the umbrella organisation of the German printing industry. As an employers’ organisation, political business association and technical trade association, it represents the positions and objectives of the printing industry vis-à-vis politicians, administration, trade unions and the supplier industry. The bvdm is supported by eight regional associations. Internationally, it is organised through its membership of Intergraf and FESPA. The printing industry currently comprises around 6,500 predominantly small and medium-sized companies with more than 106,000 employees subject to social security contributions.
